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As someone who went into Gou and Sotsu with the knowledge that they're indeed sequels to the original and not remakes, I've had quite a lot of fun with them. Of course, it should be pretty clear that these 2 seasons are just yet another attempt of milking the Higurashi IP but quite honestly speaking, in the oversaturated market of remasters and remakes this one has at least some soul to it. What I mean by this is that it knows where the original Higurashi could be worked on and which characters to primarily focus on. 

Ryukishi07 for instance (the Original Creator) said in a few ... interviews that he regrets writing characters that are mainly on either part of the "black/white" spectrum, which obviously refers to characters like Teppei Hojo who in the original "Tatarigoroshi" chapter was just a complete piece of shit, with whom you could not really sympathize in the slightest unlike Miyo for example. 

This time around, tho, we get a twist in that he actually turns out to be a nice and caring uncle for Satoko. This again is pretty smart considering the events that we learn throughout the Story, and here is also where we see how much it pays respect to the original source material. The "loopers" being Rika and Satoko have the ability to affect people around them, specifically some that are really close to them. First off this is a pretty neat explanation as to why the main-cast could remember things from other Fragments in the Original, secondly this is also really cool because this gives a reasonable explanation for the change of heart in Teppei's case. 

This then leads to a "what-if" scenario that is so twisted it feels like holding up a "negative" in front of what happened in the "Minagoroshi" chapter in the Original. As you might be able to tell I did quite enjoy that and in fact, this part of the Story was easily my favorite. It also makes a great effort to explain how the Universe of Higurashi and Umineko is connected, which was a lot of fun to see as not only the dots between these two were connected but also was filled with a ton of references to the "When They Cry" series as a whole. 

Unfortunately, this is mostly everything positive I can mention. The advertising campaign for the show was really a mess, and therefore it was also pretty weird to see a lot of well... "recycled" content. It was new but also not. Lacking a clear distinction between remake and sequel is really what held it up from being quite a great show. Often I just skimmed through entire episodes simply because they were just like in the original, despite the fact that this is in fact a sequel. 

The run-time could have been definitely used more effectively in also giving Rina more screen-time and or going more into detail about Satoko's character drama.

Overall, I think of Gou and Sotsu as fun little chapters in the bigger When They Cry Series, with compelling character drama and fun "what-if" scenarios.


tl;dr In my opinion, Gou and Sotusu shouldn't be taken so seriously and be viewed more as a fun thought experiment akin to what we get told in the final chapter of the OG Higurashi chapter "Matsuriyobashi" that we can imagine our own World of Higurashi. 

I'm quite a sucker for Sports Anime. I think there is a ton of sports that are interesting and fun to observe. So generally a narrative that combines sports and the pursuit to become the best really speaks to me since I'm also really competitive at things I'm passionate about.

Getting that out of the way, Haikyuu!! seamlessly puts 2 and 2 together and creates a fun and memorable watching experience. This is especially due to the bright cast of characters.

You have a quite stereotypical line-up of characters in the Karasuno team but what makes all of this interesting is the interaction in a ... team environment. All players have the same goal in mind and work despite their differences towards being the best. This strikes up some nice comedy moments where an energetic and lively character such as our Protagonist Hinata tries to work together with his fellow teammate Kageyama which is more of a calm and collected type of person. What ultimately breaks the Stereotype of most of the characters featured in this Show is their conflicts. Unlike most Anime Kageyama for example isn't a god on the playfield that has nothing to learn just because he's a very gifted player. He grows as a person and as a Team member from having to look at his own mistakes rather than criticizing his teammates and shifting the blame towards them. He's not the only Character that has this kind of growth tho, Haikyuu!! explores many themes related to the anxiety of failure and the mental pressure from playing a sport in a competitive setting.

Despite all of this some moments really overstay their welcome while others are getting cleverly used.

SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS SECTION:

I think they really overemphasized the entire "lonely king" plotline. Seeing that shot of Kageyama tossing the ball into nothing for the 15th time during the first Season really meant less and less to me, the more often they showed it. On the other hand, a great example of a conflict being resolved is Asahi's plotline. That moment when he crushed through the "Iron Wall" with a powerful spike was presented beautifully and marked a big stone in Asah's development as a player and as a character.

SPOILER OVER

Now a little word or two on the comedy. I genuinely enjoyed the comedy overall. It had a bit of everything, ridiculous and very "anime-like" and some fun banter and sarcasm.

Obviously, I also have to talk about the presentation of this show and boy oh boy it's fantastic. the animation is consistently very fluid and great on the eye and the real spicy moments look amazing. For example, I love the fact that when a Spiker hits a ball really hard, you can see the air pressure steaming of the ball as well as clearly hear how hard the ball just got smashed on the other side of the field. A real spicy moment is when they go over the top with the looks, representing how it feels to be in that moment.. (growing wings for jumping or just very eccentric animation)

One point which is also the reason why I'm scoring this lower than Hajime no Ippo for example is just a personal love for the underdog story. Karasuno are represented as "underdogs" but soon enough or rather immediately they prove that they're a team that could potentially make it to the national finals, which at that point they don't really count as underdogs anymore. //also like mentioned earlier I disliked the fact that some character arc's really overstayed their welcome.

What Haikyuu!! also lacks in my opinion is a great soundtrack. Don't get me wrong the Openings for example are nice and here and there were songs that really captured the vibe of the scene at that moment but skimming through the OST as of writing this review, I only feel very lukewarm about it.

TL;DR Haikyuu!! is exciting and fun to watch it has a good cast of characters looks amazing and handles themes about competitive sports in an interesting way. It's definitely worth watching.

Note: This Review acts as a Review for the entirety of Baki thus far, as I feel pretty indifferent about most arcs.

Baki is just the perfect Anime/Manga if you want to turn your brain off and just enjoy some Gore and over-the-top fighting scenes. The writers are fully aware of that not everything should be taken seriously but the trivia knowledge you get about a lot of different fighting styles and how they developed in the course of history is still pretty interesting. In fact, Baki got me quite hooked on martial arts like Muay Thai where I previously didn't have any interest in. ... So despite the fact that you could rid of Baki as a "Meme" for being so exaggerated it still has some redeeming qualities in that department.

The most important part about this Show is obviously the fights. What makes them so fun to watch is always the build-up towards them. Be it a tough Opponent for Baki to get to the next level or even the occasional absolute destruction of his Father beating up some poor guy it always is a pleasure to see how they prepare for a fight. The fights themselves also score in all of the good categories for never being too long and not having a lot of "in-betweens" aka Dragon Ball Z syndrome.

I personally would even give the series a higher score just for that but my gripe with it is, that it is in fact way too long for its own good. Also since it only offers good entertainment in fights I would never give it anything higher than a "7" because of the lack of interesting Story/Characters.

It's been about 4 or 5 years since I watched the entirety of this Anime in about 2 weeks. The problem is, that the only thing I concisely remember is, that how many times I questioned myself why in the name of God I'm watching it.

To be fair, the premise and overall tone of Reborn isn't anything out of the ordinary. It's just so painfully average in everything it does and beyond that, it sucks any enjoyment out of the viewing experience by being slow-paced as hell.

Usually, your typical Shounen humor is already quite annoying, to begin with. Don't get me wrong it's not ... like I hate it but most of the time it's the same repeated joke over and over again, the only difference being it's in another Anime. In Reborn the same joke gets rehashed so many times that I simply had the urge to gouge my eyes out.

Combine that with the already slow-progressing Story and you get a recipe for disaster.

Also, something to take note of is that there are some logical flaws in the Anime that get so ridiculous that even though it's a Shounen I still couldn't wrap my head around how the writers didn't notice any of that. (don't take this point too serious, like I said it's a Shounen after all)

Now for the final nail in the coffin. Everything in this Anime feels at least to me, very uninspired. To point out something I mentioned earlier, the premise feels very generic but isn't that quite odd? I mean one of the selling points, one of the only unique things about KHR should be that it combines elements of Italian Mafia life and Shounen tropes. The big fat problem with that is, that the part of the Italian Mafia is so irrelevant to the Plot that the Character Reborn also could've been a Navy Seal and it wouldn't change a thing. And it's not just the premise, it's also things like the Soundtrack. I mean wow giving a Character like Ryohei who's a Boxer a theme that just very slightly resembles the theme of another very popular fictional Boxer, that speaks creativity. (In case you didn't catch this one, Ryohei's theme is almost a carbon copy of Rocky Balboa's theme)


tl;dr The Anime is very average in a lot of categories but on top of that, it is also very creativeless and due to the slow pacing and the repetition of the same ol' joke it gets very boring, very quickly. Not recommended at all.

This short Movie is truly a little masterpiece in its own right.

In essence, it tells a Story of growing old and the memories we leave behind. And even though this simple idea is conveyed in a Story as short as 12 minutes it still managed to pull my heartstrings. I just loved everything about the presentation, the long shots, the Artstyle and coloring that looks like a moving painting, the very subtle facial animations just everything.

This is accompanied by an ever so fitting musical score, which almost acts as an Narrator, because it captures the internal feelings/thoughts that our main-character has seeing/reliving his ... old memories.

That being said, Kunio Katō deserved his Oscar and I can highly recommend Tsumiki no Ie